Reasons NOT to Jailbreak

Written by Mac-CT.

Your device May Lose Stability

Jailbreaking is a hack and there are unexpected things that could happen because of that. It’s possible, after jailbreaking your device and installing applications via Cydia – the unofficial App Store, your device may become buggy and slow.

It may even crash.

Now, for power users and those willing to troubleshoot, this probably won’t be too much of an issue. However, for the average person, it can and probably will become a headache.

For many of you, having a stable iPhone / iPad will be more of a priority then having a customized one.

Updating Is a Pain

While the stability issue might not be one that affects everyone that jailbreaks, the pain in the rear end known as updating your jailbroken phone does. If you’re the kind of person that wants the latest and greatest software right off the bat, jailbreaking might not be fore you.

When Apple releases an update, you will have to wait for the devs to either release a patch or a new jailbreak for your iPhone. When it comes to smaller iOS updates, it’s usually a fast process.

However, when it comes to larger updates like iOS 6.1 it takes awhile. So, if you’re the impatient type, keep this in mind.

And once you get the update, your headache might remain as you’ll need to re-install the jailbreak and all of the apps that you downloaded from Cydia. There are definitely tools out there that can help you restore, but it’s still going to take some time.

In other words, it’s not the seamless process you might expect from an official update.

Factory Resets Aren’t Fun

Loss of Genius Bar Support

If you run into a problem with your device, you might decide to take it to the Genius Bar in an Apple retail location. Well, if you’ve jailbroken your phone, chances are, the Genius will refuse to help you.

Suggestion: Don’t mention that your phone is jailbroken.

You can also un-jailbreak your phone but if you find yourself bringing it in on a semi-regular basis, you’re going to start getting annoyed with doing that over and over again.

A factory reset will work as well but that will wipe everything from your phone.

Fun.

Loss of Warranty

Back in 2012, jailbreaking your iPhone became a legal thing to do. Seriously, this was illegal at one point. But just because it’s not legal doesn’t change the fact that it will void your warranty with Apple.

So if your device starts acting up, even it has nothing to do with the jailbreak, you more than likely won’t get the support that you need to get the issue fixed.

That means that you’ll have to factory reset.

Again, lots of fun.

So yes, it’s possible to avoid both of these, but for many of you it won’t be worth the hassle. Now that you know some of the risks involved with jailbreaking, you can make an informed decision.